There were times when Fuoco’s pace aboard Ferrari’s 499P Le Mans Hypercar was nothing short of astounding in the WEC.
The prototype rookie’s lap to grab pole position first time out at Sebring took everyone by surprise, the eight-tenths margin by which he beat team-mate Alessandro Pier Guidi to top spot in Hyperpole qualifying at the Le Mans 24 Hours equally so.
But it was in the races – and Le Mans in particular – where the 27-year-old really stood out in 2023. He was blindingly quick at the 24 Hours, though admittedly his #50 entry was on the comeback trail after its mid-race delay. But it was far from a one-off.
Engineer’s view: Mauro Barbieri, Ferrari endurance race cars performance, simulation & regulation manager
“Antonio’s value has always been there: it was somehow clear in 2022, his first season in a GTE car. In the second half of the season, he was quicker than James [Calado] and Alessandro [Pier Guidi], who for us were the top drivers in GTE and still are our reference. We didn’t have any doubts about him, though that’s not to play down what he did this season.
“For sure, the pole positions were highlights. I would put Sebring above Le Mans just because it was the first examination when we could compare ourselves with our competitors. Having pole on our first outing gave us a lot of positive feelings to start the championship.
“The race at Le Mans was a big show of his talents and potential, but also of his spirit. After we had the issue on the [hybrid] radiator and lost something like 10 laps as soon as he jumped out of the car when his stint was over, he was going around all the engineers saying, ‘Let’s not give up, let’s put everything into it’.
“He said that if we crashed it didn’t matter because we were nowhere, but if we could gain some positions before the race was over it would be good for our championship. That attitude was also one of the highlights.
"He is on the right trajectory, growing and developing to become a leader or the leader of our endurance programmes" Mauro Barbieri
“Whenever we have a simulator session, Antonio always makes himself available, even though in addition to the WEC he also did the long-distance IMSA races and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, and there’s also his work on the Formula 1 simulator. He always contributes wherever he can to improve our package.
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“He is already good in terms of the choices on set-up and the direction of development. He is very clear and assertive.
“Antonio is still young-ish and still building his expertise in terms of reading some moments of the race, developing some of the skills in order to be more precise on the feedback on what to change on the car. These are areas where he can still improve, but he is on the right trajectory, growing and developing to become a leader or the leader of our endurance programmes.”
